


Freaky Forever

by PunishedPyotr



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Awkward Romance, Gender or Sex Swap, Other, Possession, as far as Mantis knows he did, au where Liquid does take over Ocelot’s mind, i have no idea how to tag this, off-screen sex, or maybe not, reupload, split personality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 00:34:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13422951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunishedPyotr/pseuds/PunishedPyotr
Summary: "Both Liquid and Mantis take a major control over their hosts and meet once again in the wicked afterlife." Or this life, anyway. Or something.





	Freaky Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Brambora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brambora/gifts).



> ~~i haven't actually decided if i'll do daily updates yet but as for today i saw aireyv e-begging.. i mean advertising commissions on their tumblr/twitter and it seems they're in a tight spot so i kinda felt the need to mention that here too?~~
> 
> original a/n:  
>  _This is **NOT** in continuity with Only Ones and Zeroes, so don’t even start with that. Also, I may or may not have made vague references to  Miscellany/"Рокси Харт и Вэлма Келли" but this isn’t in continuity with White Diamond either._  
>  _(Also if anyone's wondering why it's gifted to a different username than on the wishlist: Same person. I know her. She's stuck with this fic.)_

Liquid first found out what happened to Mantis after his death _long_ before he kicked Ocelot out of his own head and took over. With the newfound freedom and stability of not having to struggle for control over Ocelot’s body, Liquid had a lot more time to carry out his plans… he casually added finding Mantis and rescuing him from the clutches of the Patriots to the top of his priority list. If anyone asked, he’d make an extremely valuable ally, even if Liquid couldn’t be entirely sure that he was quite as powerful anymore now that he’d been… somehow… shoved into the body of a girl two decades younger than him. (Beat being shoved into the body of a man _three_ decades _older_.)

Truthfully he just missed Mantis. Maybe that was a bit embarrassing to admit, but he did. He’d thought about him a lot all the years since Shadow Moses and his dramatic death and extremely confusing resurrection ( _an arm?? why was he an arm now what the fuck_ ) but he’d never talked about it with Ocelot, mostly because he got overemotional if he attempted to. To the point where tears started streaming down Ocelot’s cheeks the day he told Liquid was that Mantis was, sort of, technically, in a weird way, still alive — which annoyed Ocelot to no end.

So one day he finally found and took his chance to gather his forces and storm the Patriot facility where Mantis was being held. There were actually four young women there, all undergoing training or whatever, but Liquid knew ahead of time which was one was his primary target — and not simply because her codename was “Screaming Mantis” - hers was the highest-security cell. Liquid went for that one _personally_.

As soon as he walked in, Mantis, who had been hiding behind the door, panicked and tried to kill him with a broken shower curtain rod. Clearly the only weapon remotely available to him, poor fellow… and in this body his psychic powers might have been a bit stunted when it came to combat…

“Aaaaagh!! Let go of me! Let go of me!! Guards! Guards, _help!_ It’s _Ocelot!!_ ” Well, that settled it, then. Only Mantis could be so shrill about Ocelot. “Let go of me! Help!!”

“Calm down, will you?” Liquid said, amused.

“Let _go!!_ Where are those accursed guards?! Useless! Let go of me, Ocelot, what do you want from me?! Stop it! You’re hurting me!!”

In actuality Liquid had Mantis in an extremely lenient chokehold, and _he_ was probably doing more damage to _Liquid_ with his flailing around. Or trying to, anyway, his nails might have been longer and sharper than they were originally but they scraped rather harmlessly down the metal of Liquid’s prosthetic, and now that Mantis had a soft girl body Liquid once again had, after like thirty-something years, the height advantage.

Highly satisfying.

“Let _go_ of me!! Somebody help me!!”

“I’m _here_ to help you, Mantis,” Liquid chided. “Don’t you recognize me?”

“Do not _touch_ me, Ocelot! I don’t like you touching me! Let go!!”

“I’m not Ocelot.”

That got Mantis to still. “…what,” he said flatly.

“I’m not,” Liquid said. “It’s me, Liquid Snake, the White Mamba… surely you remember me,” he added, cracking a very un-Ocelot-like grin.

Mantis squirmed enough to look up at Liquid with big dark eyes. “Boss?” he said incredulously, then shook his head. “No, no, do not even _start_ with—“

Liquid interrupted him with a very quick summary of events after Shadow Moses, mostly the parts where Ocelot stole his arm and then turned out to have inherited some kind of latent powers from his spirit medium father, allowing Liquid to possess him. He fumbled with the story immediately after the Big Shell - to be honest, he didn’t _quite_ remember what happened after his brother shot Ocelot in the right arm and it had to be tourniqueted and Liquid felt like he had asphyxiated - but when all was said and done, all that was left of Ocelot was an empty shell of a body and a struggling remnant of subconscious that Liquid had shut up for good some time before launching this rescue mission.

“That…” Mantis said, licking his lips nervously, “seems a little far-fetched, boss.”

“Have you seen _yourself_ , Mantis?”

“…point.”

He let Mantis go and allowed him to stand on his own two feet, then took his hand. Mantis stiffened. “Will you come with me?”

“Where are we…?” Mantis said, shaking his hand out of his. Liquid hid a frown. Okay, so Mantis would just have to get used to Liquid looking exactly like Ocelot (who had probably been Mantis’ worst enemy in life, the two of them had never gotten along as far as Liquid had ever seen) and additionally he wouldn’t really be able to read Liquid’s mind anymore, would he…? “Boss? Boss.”

“What? Sorry, I spaced out.”

Mantis let out a cute little snort of a laugh. “It must really be you, then.”

“Very funny. Come on, then, let’s get out of here before reinforcements arrive! We’ve already wasted enough time.” He was more careful of his personal space this time, but nonetheless herded him towards the door.

“Wait!” Mantis said, nervous again, “where are we going??”

“We’re going home.”

* * *

It turned out that Liquid had drastically underestimated the girls’ emotional issues, so by the time he was done debriefing them about the evils of the Patriots and their new fealty to him, they had all _somehow_ ended up with a single-minded focus on the destruction of Solid Snake. Not Liquid’s fault, honestly, he’d only mentioned him once or twice or forty-six times. But hey, this worked out.

Mantis stayed separate from the other young women although he did admit to being, technically, more of an alternate personality to a girl just like them than anything else. But her emotional disorder manifested in a severe fear of the world at large, so she was more than content to let Mantis pilot the meat-suit very nearly all the time.

“That works for me,” Liquid said brightly. “Mantis—“

“Could you not take such an affectionate tone with me, boss?” Mantis said, taking a few steps back. “You look and sound exactly like Ocelot, it is… unsettling.”

“Oh… sorry. Can’t be helped.”

Mantis was skittish around him but Liquid was _certain_ he’d _eventually_ warm up to him if he just carried on as usual. Ocelot was gone now, effectively dead, drowned in Liquid’s will. He had no shadow to cast over Liquid’s relationship with Mantis… but maybe Liquid should shave the moustache? …no, that was exactly what he did the first time he’d had ten minutes’ uninterrupted control over Ocelot’s body, so Ocelot had rang in New Year’s 2006 clean-shaven. And it looked weird as hell and Liquid did _not_ want to do _that_ again. And this probably wasn’t about his appearance, anyway, more about the fact that Mantis had never been able to read Ocelot’s mind and that trait appeared to be physiological in nature…

Keeping a respectful distance was driving Liquid nuts. He’d missed Mantis so, _so_ much, and now that he was within his grasp again - even if they were both in the wrong bodies - the space between them was really wearing him down and he wished Mantis would just suck it up and accept that, yes, Liquid now inhabited Ocelot’s body but the alternative was him _being dead for over half a decade now_. This _was_ better, wasn’t it?!

So to hell with respectful distance. He summoned Mantis to his bedroom one night, and when Mantis outright refused (which… he wasn’t supposed to be _able_ to do, come on…) he insisted that he just wanted to talk about Shadow Moses. And Mantis came.

“I’m sorry, boss,” he said, standing with his back to the closed door, looking at his feet.

Liquid blinked. “An unprompted apology? Am I still talking to _Psycho_ Mantis here?”

Mantis looked up enough for Liquid to see his eye-roll. “I thought you wanted to talk about Shadow Moses.”

“Are you apologizing for _dying?_ Don’t, there’s no need to… it wasn’t your fault, it was Snake’s fault and one of many reasons why I’m going to kill him as soon as I’m done with all this…” he waved his hand, “Patriot business. Or while I’m at it if I can get away with it. We’ll see.”

“…hm.”

“I just wanted to say… well, it’s been a long time, hasn’t it? Mantis, I _missed_ you.”

“I… I know, boss. I did too.” He was looking at the floor again.

“Why are things so awkward between us now?”

Mantis looked up again, giving him an exasperated look. “You inhabit _Ocelot’s_ body—“

“I was under the impression that it was his _personality_ you hated, not his appearance.”

“Boss, that’s not… ugh. And you have no idea what had happened between Ocelot and I.”

“You never told me anything ‘happened’.”

“…didn’t want to talk about it. At any rate, even though it’s you, I am not willing to get close to someone that I am always going to look at and think for a second is Ocelot. I am not comfortable with it.”

“But…”

“Really, I’m not.”

Liquid pouted. At length Mantis sighed, dropping his head.

“…boss…”

“No, it’s fine,” Liquid said petulantly, crossing his arms. “Couldn’t see you at all for years and years and now you’ll barely even talk to me…”

“Don’t try to guilt trip me over this, boss, I do not feel guilt.”

“Do you have _any idea_ how _devastated_ I was when you died? I couldn’t believe it had even happened until I ran over to the commander’s office and saw your body for myself.”

“Boss.”

“It’s all a blur, really. What happened next, I mean. I felt sure I’d just been torn in half, and I think there must have still been tears-tracks on my face when Wolf had apprehended Snake and I went to go talk to him. No one commented on it, though, they must have all known how awful I was feeling at the moment and I’m sure _Snake_ had other things on _his_ mind.”

“…”

“I mean, I know we were never in any sort of… er, _official_ relationship, you know, but everyone knew how terribly close we were. I suppose since you died before I did, though, you don’t know what it’s _like_ — to have _death_ so violently rip your other half away from you. It physically hurt me, you know. I think I might have gotten sick over it. Just seeing your body lying there… and you know I never particularly believed in an afterlife until I found myself a ghost, so I thought I’d never see you again! Even then… just because the consciousness evidently continues after death doesn’t necessarily mean that I would have been able to _find_ you in the great whatever’s beyond. I was so _certain_ I’d never see you again, and now here you are but I’m stuck in the body of a person you _hate_ because it was the only _option_ available to me… you think I would be in Ocelot’s body if I had any other choice?! I’m doing my best here, please don’t hold me at arms-length because of it!!”

“Boss, do you want a hug?” Mantis said.

Liquid sniffed, wiping his eyes with his arm. “…yes.”

Mantis finally pulled himself away from the door, walking over to Liquid and wrapping his arms around his waist. There was enough of a height gap between them now that Liquid could comfortably rest his chin on the top of Mantis’ head. …also there was something just _nicer_ about the soft press of breasts against the bottom of his ribcage, as opposed to how bony Mantis was before he’d died…

“Okay, that’s enough,” Mantis said, trying to pull away, but Liquid didn’t let go of him. As soon as he realized Liquid wasn’t about to go anywhere Mantis started snarling and writhing around, but Liquid just picked him up and threw him over his shoulder with a small _oof_. Damn, this had been so easy back when Mantis was severely underweight and Liquid wasn’t… well, Ocelot.

“Put me down!!” Mantis shrieked, kicking his legs and banging his fists against Liquid’s chest.

“Aw… don’t be like this, Mantis.”

“I am not interested, Eli!”

“Wh- when did I say you could use my given name?!”

“When did _I_ say you could pick me up?!”

Liquid dropped him unceremoniously on the bed, and he scrambled to sit up, pushing his nightgown back down to his shins. (He’d been getting ready for bed when Liquid called him. Funnily enough he was more than fine with wearing feminine clothing — hell, he didn’t even protest when people referred to him as a “she”, although Liquid knew better.)

“I do not want to have sex with you, Eli,” Mantis said firmly.

Liquid gaped at him. “When did I ever _say_ —“

“Oh, please. We both know where this was headed.”

“…so you _can_ read my mind!”

“No,” Mantis said, plainly even _more_ annoyed now. “You are just predictable. Honestly, you were alright with not being in a ‘relationship’, but nonetheless every other night I had to deal with—“ he put on a mocking British accent, “‘Come sleep with me, Mantis, just for tonight - I sleep better when I’m with you - I promise I won’t touch you this time — oh, I just like you too much - all I want is to get off, I won’t bother you that much - I like to see you like this—‘“

“S-Stop that, that wasn’t what it was like!” Liquid cried, going red. “You’re making me out like some sort of selfish, conniving pervert!”

“Is that _untrue?_ ”

“I just wanted to make love to you, Mantis, and besides, you always said yes _eventually_.”

“Because you would not shut up,” Mantis said, sticking his tongue out at him. “Easier to just fuck you than hear you whine and plead all night.”

“What’s different now?” Liquid said, frowning.

“You are in Ocelot’s body!”

“It’s _mine_ by rights at _this_ point—“

“I do not want to look down and see _Ocelot’s_ hands all over me. I think I would be sick.”

Liquid rolled his eyes, climbing onto the bed after Mantis and kneeling in front of him, gently running his hands over his legs and pushing his nightgown up to his hips. Mantis stared down at him, eyes wide.

“W-What did I just say, Eli?” he said, flustered, “how can you be so dense… you look like Ocelot, you idiot!”

“Then close your eyes,” Liquid breathed.

* * *

Strictly speaking, that hadn’t gone too well. It took forever for Liquid to get Mantis comfortable with being touched - and sadly, he had to give up his opportunity to grab some handfuls of tit - but _eventually_ he warmed up to Liquid’s attention, though he kept his eyes closed and wouldn’t let Liquid say anything outside of warning him what he was going to do next. At no point was he able to relax enough for Liquid to get more than one finger in him without him saying it hurt, either. Not that Liquid could get it up, either.

“I mean, I knew Ocelot was gay, but I didn’t really think that was a _physiological_ thing— look, Mantis, I _swear_ your new body is really attractive, honestly, she’s very cute, this isn’t-“

“Eli… I don’t care…”

Liquid had ended up just giving him head for almost an hour, only managing to wring a meager two or three orgasms out of him before Mantis decided they were done and told Liquid if he ever wanted to do that again then he had to get rid of the moustache. Then he blatantly rejected his kiss.

At least he was still willing to sleep by his side. Maybe it was Ocelot’s age, or it was just loneliness, but Liquid certainly appreciated his warmth now more than ever before.

So there was that. That night did manage to hit a sort of a reset button on the awkwardness between them, so while things weren’t precisely back to normal - couldn’t _go_ back to normal - they were once again close. Mantis even gave up on the moustache thing after figuring out that Liquid was rather insecure about his appearance as Ocelot, so he stopped being so quick to criticize and soon learned to enjoy combing tangles out of Liquid’s long white hair every night. (Well, he’d done that even before Shadow Moses. Liquid sometimes wondered if Mantis liking to play with his hair was simple compensation for the loss of his own hair, but Mantis never gave him a direct answer back then and wasn’t aware he was musing about it now.)

The next major meltdown didn’t happen until Liquid got ahold of some boner pills and, somewhat awkwardly, brought it up to Mantis. He brushed it off for about a full thirty seconds before remembering that the girl whose body he inhabited was only barely out of her teens - _prime_ reproductive age - and there was no reason to believe Ocelot was infertile even though he was, ugh, almost seventy. So naturally Mantis’ mind jumped to _Oh god he’s trying to impregnate me_ and, well… there ended up being some thrown furniture before Liquid got him calmed down…

“It was just an idea,” Liquid said, as soothingly as possible, holding his hands out. “We don’t have to. I’m more concerned about making _you_ feel good, I swear.”

“You’re just trying to guilt trip me again.”

“I am not! Honestly… surely you’ve gotten a least a little bored of riding my face.”

“Hmph. I only do that because _you_ want me to,” Mantis said, folding his arms haughtily.

“…right… anyway, I promise I won’t get you pregnant.”

Mantis snorted.

“Seriously, condoms still exist last time I checked.”

By the end of the week Mantis had relented and by the next week the two of them had come to the extremely belated and rather uncomfortable realization that one of them should have cleared the whole sex thing with the girl whose body it was _originally_. She hadn’t put in any appearances since the raid on the Patriot facility, so it hadn’t occured to either of them…

Of course Mantis was left to deal with that, Liquid was busy. The game was afoot, after all. He was so close to breaking SOP over his knee he could almost _taste_ it.

* * *

“Tomorrow’s the day,” Liquid said in a sing-song voice, grabbing Mantis by the wrists and spinning around with him like they were dancing. “Tomorrow we take out JD and with it - the Patriots!”

“Glad to see you’re in such a good mood, boss,” Mantis said, pulling his hands away.

“How are you holding up? Outer Haven’s treating you well, isn’t it?”

“Oh… no, I am fine, boss.”

“Really?” Liquid’s cheerful demeanor cooled slightly as he narrowed his eyes. “Because… one of the FROGs reported to me that she caught you trying to sneak away while we were docked.”

“…” Mantis looked away deliberately, his hands drifting up to his stomach.

Liquid gripped his shoulders reassuringly. “I’m not angry,” he promised, “I’m just worried. You tried to leave… were you planning on coming back?”

“Yes.”

“Just needed some time alone?”

“Something like that.”

“You shouldn’t have done it while we were so close to departure… you might have missed us setting sail, and you know we need you—“

Mantis shook his head. “I intended to return in time to head for the Bering Sea. It was not an overnight trip, boss, just a few hours at the most.”

Liquid cocked his head. “Well, you shouldn’t have tried to do it so secretly, then! Tell me what’s going on, Mantis. Are you nervous? Snake’s already taken out the rest of the B&B Corps… does that frighten you?”

“…”

“Because you shouldn’t have too much trouble with him tomorrow… I’ve already softened him up for you, you know, at Shadow Moses. He looks terrible. You can take him, Mantis, things’ll be different this time!”

Mantis stepped away again, curling in on himself a little, frowning and avoiding eye contact. “No, that is not it,” he said, “I just needed to visit a certain clinic… I didn’t want you to know about it, boss.”

Now Liquid really was confused. “A clinic?” he repeated. “Didn’t want me to know… didn’t want to worry me? Mantis, I already _know_ you were ill a little while ago, remember? But you told me the medic said it was just a stomach bug, why would you need to go to a clinic…”

Mantis raised one hand to his face, scrubbing it over it. “You… I cannot believe you…”

“What? What’s the matter?”

“You’re so— you are so _dense!_ You imbecile… how can you not have figured out what’s going on?! What you’ve done to me!”

“Mantis, what’s going on?” Liquid said, alarmed.

Mantis covered his face with both hands, his shoulders shaking. “I _hate_ this. You idiot… you absolute cretin! We weren’t paying close enough attention…”

“Mantis, what are you- come on, let’s just calm down now, shall we?” Liquid said, putting one arm around his shoulders. “Take a few deep breaths and tell me what’s got you so upset—“

Mantis pushed him away roughly. “I missed my period this month, boss,” he blurted out. “Then, I felt sick, so I took the test and as it turns out… I had to get rid of it, but I was caught… it is not even yours, technically it’s Ocelot’s, oh _god_ …”

“…pardon?”

“Eli, I’m pregnant.”

**Author's Note:**

> _Mantis' recent Google searches: "How many tranquilizer rounds does it take to induce a miscarriage"_   
>  _Shoutout to Corpsefluid for her suggestion re: Ocelot's moustache and what Liquid did/should do with it._
> 
> _Tempted to do a sequel ft. pregnant!freaking out!Mantis and dead!Liquid Ocelot..._
> 
>  
> 
> any and all comments will be forewarded to aireyv! i will either copy/paste their reply to me or they will reply on their own account! have a nice day!!! if you have any questions, just ask!!!!


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